Health practices and health seeking behaviors among Hispanic elderly population



Health practices and health seeking behaviors among Hispanic elderly population

Introduction 

Health is vital for the progress and prosperity of any social group. Hispanics constitute the main sectional cluster in the United States today. The first decade of the twentieth epoch, saw a meteoric increase in the overseas innate people of the United States, which is increased by 57 percent from the time period of 1990 to 2000. The Hispanic populations contributed the most to this unprecedented rise. For two consecutive decades, 1980-1990 and 1990-2000, the Hispanics emerged as the utmost promptly raising cultural/ethnic clusters with their population surging up by approximately 58 percent during the said period, taking their numbers to consist of 12.5 % of the whole USA. population (Durden & Hummer, 2006). Subsequently, Hispanics today have claimed the spot of the biggest racial sectional sect within USA. The changing dynamics of the U.S. population, has sought the attention of socioeconomic researchers and additional intellectuals who are presently focusing on the health necessities, complications, and growth of the Hispanic population. As a group the Hispanic population in the USA is known to experience poor health results as compare to their non Hispanic and Native American foils. This has been attributed to growing age, language hurdles, and poor health knowledge (Rogers, 2010). This underlines the need for appropriate health practices to facilitate proper growth in the young and adults, and to maintain physical bodily functions among the elderly. Shortage of entree to health care is considered as the most prominent purposes, which impede good health among Hispanics (Gast and Peak, 2011).

By using the term Hispanic instead of Latino, and the various subpopulations that comprise the Hispanic population is necessary. Individuals from Latin American prefer referring to themselves as “Hispanic” not “Latino” (Durden & Hummer, 2006). The Hispanic population consists of various subgroups classified primarily on national origin and varying migration histories, and socioeconomic and political realities. Ordinarily the racial subsets of Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American comprise of people that are born in both of the countries along with the central United States of America. Thus the term “Mexican Americans” is applied to people who are born in Mexico and people who declare Mexican origin but were actually born in the United States of America (Durden & Hummer, 2006).

Among the primary influences on access to health care for the elderly Hispanics, citizenship status matters the most, as it is the primary source of medical care. The noncitizens have little or no access as compared to the citizens. Durden and Hummer (2006) endorse the idea that the lacks of citizenship affects healthcare access severally, such as through language, income barriers and disparities, and above all the lack of insurance. Naturalization acquired by foreign-born individuals helps over come language barriers by making English a prerequisite. Besides, citizenship helps individuals qualify for certain kinds of healthcare (Durden & Hummer, 2006).

A.T. Rogers (2010) believes that even though various socioeconomic characteristics mark health disparities, ...